Art, craft, projects and life with Gillian Cooper...
Artist, Tutor, Writer and Mother

Friday, 21 November 2014

The Big Reveal: New Collection of Small Works

Forgotten Figures I by Gillian Cooper

Finally, I’ve
finished some of the series of smaller pieces I’ve been working on. And here they are. Each of these pieces is 8x6in – the smallest
I’ve ever made.

Forgotten Figures II by Gillian Cooper

I’ve really enjoyed
working small. I love the speed (there
are about another 15-20 in progress as well as these ones) and playing around
with composition by cropping the slightly larger pieces to fit within the
frame. All of these are now mounted
ready for sale at Holmwood House on Sunday (and afterwards). Come and see me at Holmwood House in Glasgow on
Sunday afternoon if you have time and you will see exactly how these pieces
were made.

Forgotten Figures III by Gillian Cooper

These pieces are
all wholecloth too – no piecing before I printed, painted, stencilled and
stitched. In some ways I think I would
be too precious with a piece I had already made to stick it onto the printing
plate just to see what happens. Perhaps
that will change with experience, but for 8x6in there are already a lot of
techniques involved, so I’m not convinced it would add anything.

Forgotten Figures IV by Gillian Cooper

I’ve also altered
my colour palette to some extent. Other
people have been commenting on this rather than me, as to me it seems entirely
natural and not really anything different to what I was doing. This is where the insights of others come in
handy. Do you have any views on these
pieces?

Forgotten Figures V by Gillian Cooper

I intend adding them
to my website for sale sometime soon and reviving my Etsy shop to start being a
bit more commercial about my art.
There. I’ve stated it. Now I have to go through with it as I’ve put
it in black and white. I still want to
make totally unsellable installations, but even I don’t have them on permanent
display in my house so I can hardly expect others to do the same and it would
be nice to have some room under our bed/in our garage/under the stairs again
rather than it being taken up with artwork.